De Boer hails from Toronto, Canada. Her first credit was Freddie the Freeloader’s Christmas Dinner. Fans of a certain age will remember that Freddie the Freeloader was a beloved character played by comedy legend Red Skelton. De Beor was just 11 years old when she appeared in the 1981 HBO special, which also featured Vincent Price and Imogene Coca. De Boer played a young girl in a hospital.

Comedy fans may recall that de Boer portrayed the recurring role of Laura, the girlfriend of Bruce McCulloch’s character, Bobby, on the Canadian sketch comedy show The Kids in the Hall. De Boer later turned up as an entirely different character, a groupie, in the 1996 Kids in the Hall film, Brain Candy.

What do de Boer and William Shatner have in common? Well, besides the fact that they’re both Canadian, de Boer guest starred in “Chill Factor,” a 1995 episode of the sci-fi TV series TekWar, based on Shatner’s novels of the same name.

DS9 writer/producer Hans Beimler paved the way for de Boer to land her role as Ezri Dax. They’d worked together on both Beyond Reality and TekWar, and it was Beimler who suggested that she be considered for the job. He had her send in an audition tape, which resulted in an invite to audition in person, which won her the part.

In another case of Star Trek Six Degrees of Separation, and we admit this one is a stretch… there’s a connection between de Boer and J.J. Abrams. De Boer made her feature film debut in Prom Night IV: Deliver Us from Evil, released in 1992. One of the film’s co-stars was J.H. Wyman. Wyman went on to write, produce, direct and/or serve as show runner on Fringe and Almost Human, both Abrams/Bad Robot productions.

De Boer appeared in all 25 episodes of DS9’s seventh and final season.

Post-DS9, the actress co-starred as Sarah Bracknell Bannerman on The Dead Zone, the television adaptation of the Stephen King novel. The long-running show was developed and produced by the tandem of Michael Piller, de Boer’s boss on DS9, and his son, Shawn Piller.

De Boer recently added a new credit to her filmography… producer. She co-produced and stars in Stranger, a short film that was an official selection at the Toronto Independent Film Festival 2016.

The actress is currently shooting season two of the Canadian comedy-drama-romance series Private Eyes, which stars Jason Priestley and Cindy Sampson. De Boer plays Becca, the ex-wife of Priestley’s character.

De Boer splits her time between Los Angeles and Toronto. Her daughter, Summer, by ex-husband John Kastner, will turn 10 years old next month.